The Plague
by TenthPond
Summary: The lost story of a survivor , other than the Doctor, of the great time war and the destruction of Gallifrey.
1. Prolouge

Her name was like leaves on the wind, water in a brook, the sunlight on a shaded hill. It was so hard to comprehend yet so easy to whisper. So easy to say yet so hard to grasp. She was ranked time lady, a gallifreyan high rank. The war started and tore her life apart, sending her to fight. She couldn't bear to fight anymore. It was near the end of her once beautiful planet when it blew into a rush of flames. She was left for dead, screaming out for help but to no avail.

She was alone, so very alone with her planet's life draining away with her own. Strangely she could keep her small amount of sanity. The small enough amount that fueled her drive to live and breathe on. Tears weren't possible due to the heat, her body could somehow take it. Her hearts beat with extensive heave, it was so hard when smoke was all that lingered in the atmosphere. It felt like eternity as she somehow prevented herself from having too bad of burns. A large blast shook her, bringing her up from the nearly lava like ground and into the atmosphere. The Atmosphere had evidentally vanished, she went flying into the endless vacumm of space. The air was sucked from her lungs to the point of her passing out. She thought this was the end of her.

One Earth Month Later

She awoke in a panic, taking in breaths of air from wherever she was. Wait? Air? She sat up, eyesight blurry but healed. A small puddle sat next to her, it was ice cold to her touch. She looked into it, a snaking burn mark made it's way up her face and down her naked body. She shivered as the cold hit her from the space around her. Where was she? Her mind wouldn't work and she couldn't seem to tell. Skeletons of TARDIS's fresh from the war lay steaming and sparking on the surface of the planet. Maybe it wasn't a planet. Her lips curled into a frown as she attempted to stand solidly. She wobbled like a baby learing to walk, steadying herself was challenging enough.

Her first instict was to look around, look around for something, but what? She closed her eyes and thought with urgency. She stood on a mound dirt over looking the steaming Tardi. She could hear the screams and cries from them, or was it all just her mind creating them.. She cursed beneath her breath as she made her way down the hill and onto ground level. She needed to leave this planet, leave it all behind. It would take forever to find a fixable craft, one not steaming or on fire. The very thing in front of her was nearly perfect. It kept it's silver outer shell. It was an older model. A model fifty. But not as old as the Doctor's.

She felt as it died, she had no proper tools to save it but she would do anything to help. She was dying herself, or close to death. This was her fifth regeneration, would she be six anytime soon? Hopefully not. She looked around the inside. It sparked and steamed. It ought to repair itself if I help it...

She put her hand on the console and rubbed it with ease. "There there, don't be afraid..." She murmured, feeling insane. "Let's get you back to health. There will be no dying."


	2. Chapter 1 : The Kiss of Life

She steadied herself well now, looking at the bottom of the console. A few wires were severed and still burning. Her hands were burned so much that she didn't mind touching them. The two wires merged, it was like they were both sautering irons. The very time machine hummed back to life. This was the thing that brought it down, that one thing...that one simple thing. She ran up the stairs to the console and listened to it, one ear down on it.

"C'mon love, you can do it." She heard the roar of the engine back to life, the lights came on. The lever that sent someone through time pulled down by itself. Her eyes widened. "How?" She asked then realized that it had found the area troubelling and dangerous.

She manuvered around, the sparks fading, the sounds of the TARDIS calming her. Her eyes closed to take it in, she bent down and kissed the lever. "Thank you, what shall I call you?" She looked about the large inside. It didn't seem to know and she could feel it. A TARDIS couldn't talk but it could give you a feeling. The Time Lady sat in the seat near the console, waiting for it to land wherever. The thud signalled it's landing.

She looked about, then walked to the doors of the silver ship. She stepped out onto a cobblestoned street. Where was she? This wasn't anywhere she had been. In all of her years she hadn't been anywhere but Gallifrey. She was mostly shroaded due to her previously reckless nature. People coughed around her, rats paraded the streets. The smell in the air was of death and this sickened her. She was butt naked, on the streets of 14th century london. This most certaintly wasn't good...

Her eyes wandered at the grossed out glances. The TARDIS behind her had vanished and she felt mostly helpless now. How would she manage to get back and get out of this horrid situation? Her eyes wandered, this place was sick. She had read up on planets , her mind now began to work and the gears rotated in her mind. "Earth.." She groaned, walking down the street stark naked. It was chilling out, she needed clothing. A burlap sack labeled potatoes sat on the ground, she wrapped it around her scarred body. It was better than nothing. She walked back onto the main drag, accidentally going into one of the more civilized people. He spoke in a strange language, it took her a bit to finally understand. The TARDIS translated it for her, she thanked the stars.

"I'm very sorry, sir." She spoke naturally, standing up and terribly giving him respect. The man frowned, he wasn't that harsh cold hearted person that the Gallifreyans had put all humans out to be.

His face turned to a frown. "You poor girl, an endentured servant?" He questioned, looking over her burns then her clothing. "Yes, the burns. Your temporary master must have burned you because you didn't do well enough. Only giving you a potato sack? Now' that's harsh. Come with me." He commanded, having some plans for this child. The skin untouched by char was as white as snow. Her hair was dark black like raven's feathers and her eyes were like blue ponds.

As they walked she got views, terribly venimous views. It was as if she were a zoo animal and they were her spectators. She shivered at the idea and supposed it was the best idea to keep her eyes straight on.

The man led her up a large landing of stairs, then into a brick building. A group of frantic woman stood around, putting strange slug like creatures into a bowel and then shoving them into a bag. She looked at the leeches with wide eyes, but she didn't yet know what they were. Leeches were commonly used for bleeding, to bleed the impurities from the body. The four humors that made up the body were known as the four elements. Vomiting was also a common thought of helping.

He looked at her with a kind yet slightly strange smile. "You will be placed here."

"When did I ever-" She stopped herself, shaking her head. Maybe it was good to get a job here, to see the lay of the land.

"Excuse me? I couldn't quite hear that." He placed a gloved hand to his ear.

"What will I do here?" She asked, eyes widening at the leeches once more.

"Don't you know what's going on around here? I guess not..."


	3. Chapter 2: Bleeding and Death

It was day one on the job. It took her awhile to understand what he meant by bubonic plague. It was a terrible sickeness running through England. It caused people to have boils on their body and to become alive and rotting. This caused her to shiver after thinking about it. It was her first time getting out with clothes on and a bag similar to the other untrained nurses. They had told her to visit the patient, not to breathe in their presence and to set one of these leeches on their boils. Her hand clasp the knocker of a upper class citizen's abode.

A distraught man wearing a suit and bow tie with white gloves appeared at the door. "Master Thomas is upstairs." He said out of breath, he too was becoming sick. She was a timelady, she couldn't get sick from these deseases. She knew it too well.

She paced upstairs. "Sir!" She nodded, getting ready for the worst. His bed was covered with a thin silk awning. "Madame Sara died yesterday, he needs to be healed a bit before his depature." The man sounded completely insane to her.

She held her breath, walking into the area. "Hello sir, I'm here to balance your-" She stopped, looking him over. His old body was frail and covered in large puss filled boils, her stomached churned at the thought of one bursting. His lips were black and his eyes were bloodshot and swollen. "Humors.." She finished, grabbing one of the evil little leeches out. She set it on the boil as she was shown the day before. The little devil began to drink the puss from the skin. Was she doing it right? No blood, so no. She took the leach off, placed it in the small bowel and grabbed an unclean knife. She striked his arm and blood began to come out slowly, she put it in the bowel.

- That night-

She found the chamber pot beneath her bed and let it all come out. Throwing up was what she needed, it caused her to shiver and shake. A knock at her door alerted her to shove the pot beneath her bed and sit at the ready. "Come in." She said with a slightly shaky voice. That vomiting sure took a lot out of her.

The man walked in, his eyes in complete insane happiness. How could he be so happy at a horrid time like this? "Victoria." He called her, she went with it even though it wasn't proper. "You did a great job to day. Or so the man at the front door said. Master Thomas seems to be recovering from his the evil plague. Strange thing isn't it?" She rose a brow, how could he be recovering when he was so close to death, unless blessing happened to alert the upmost tragedy. She couldn't seem to understand humans that well yet, they were so feeble and frail. It saddened her.

He sighed a bit though, his happiness went thin. "But, one of the nurses has fallen ill with it. Why has she been givin the curse?" He asked, eyes to the ground. "Victoria, you are replacing her. Go to the apothocary for supplies. I heard that plague doctors from Italy have travelled there to get supplies. I need you to inform them that we need more of them down here, it's getting worse."

- London streets -

Victoria, or so the humans called her, ran down the night streets. It was dangerous out, but she kept her guard. She rounded the corner to the shop, the one that he had told her to go to. She read the name and shuddered. "The winking rat." Who in the world would name it that? She grasp the pull bar of the door and walked in, the bell rang. These so called plague doctors stood, talking about things and such. Rumors around her told her that they didn't go into the public eye and that it was rare to see one when you weren't ready to die.

She walked by them, going to the wooden counter. "Sir?" She asked, giving him the paper list of objects that she needed. She hated this time period, it was so stressfull. She stood waiting as he got it all. The doctors continued talking until the looked towards her. She heard one murmur in Italianese, or was it Italian? She didn't know her languages quite yet. She understood it imediately. "I'm not some uneducated welp thank you very much!" She shot back towards one. She covered her mouth after that. The three murmured amongst themselves, wondering how she had such perfect Italian. The man behind the desk looked at her.

"That will be three copper pence and one gold piece please." He held out his greedy little hand. His white hairs blew in the breeze from the cracks in the wood in his building.

She handed over the money. "Here we are." She placed them in her bag before readying to leave.

One of the plague doctors sighed, "You shouldn't talk to us... we mean bad news." He warned before she left the shop.

What did he mean? Shouldn't talk to them? Weren't they human as well? Was it their job? This all intrigued her. Oh she had the thought of being one of the. So isolated and so secret, being able to observe death and then the falling world around them. It would be better than standing by a dead body with a horrible look on your face, or being scorned.


	4. Chapter 3: Plague's Kiss of Death

It was nearly a month since she had first become a nurse at this strange house. Most had died off, she was the remainder, taking care of her elderly boss. He would soon die of the plague too. It was around midnight when she heard death like scilence engulf the usually noisy town. Even at midnight she would hear some sound, like rats scurrying or people coughing up a lung. She grew acustomed to it all.

Victoria ran to the shutters, opening them to find a group of three plague doctors, traveling by lantern light through the dark roads. A sign lay on the house across the street that read "Don't come here, you only bring our demise. Curse upon you." Some thought of them as angels of death others thought of them as hope bringers.

The three passed her window, she lost her breath. The smell of death lay upon them, the smell she knew all too well because she too reaked of it by now. She was the woman who lived on even after everyone died around her. One looked her directly in the eyes and just stood there, she closed the shutters and peared through the cracks, they had left. She could hear the man in her house sneeze three times, then grow silent. Sneezing was the end of all when someone had the plague. She looked over, without a scared facial expression and shut his eyes. Her work here was done...

Victoria crept from the house, wrapped in an overcoat. She followed behind the strangers walking through the death marked town. She would stop and hide behind walls. Soon they came to the river Thames. She quickly darted onto their boat and into a tan covered bit. Her hearts raced in her chest. The four went on the boat and the lanterns cast light. She wrapped herself in the coat and somehow managed fall to sleep, a big mistake.

It was nearly an hour until she awoke, she lay in an ornate bed in a well lit room. The red velvet covers through her for a loop, she sat up and streached. "Oh my.." She whispered, getting out of bed and into the cold room. Her coat was hanging on the coat rack in the corner and that same ominous plauge doctor's mask sat on the desk near a window facing her. A handsome man sat in a chair asleep, it was as if he were watching her. She walked over to the object on the desk and looked at it closely. All it was was a leather, beak shaped with glass over the place for eyes and herbs and insense on the inside. It was strange, but it seemed like they believe it kept them safe from this plague. Oh how stupid they were.

The man stirred opening an eye, then fully awaking. He swayed about trying to find her. He stood then looked behind him. "Oh, there you are. You scared me to death, you could have caught a cold last night. You didn't though. Please don't touch that aparatus, it is quite fragile." He waved his hands about. "Do you even know the price of glass?"

She sighed, hearing him go a bit mad. "Please calm down, talk slowly? Yes?" She turned around to him, eyes like burning embers. "Why?" She asked, looking around. "Why did you bring me here?"

He heavily sighed, gently cracking his black gloved knuckles. "My duty as an actual doctor sometimes preceeds my job."

So he was an actual doctor, this was a nice change. Someone other than the completely airheaded nurses and men calling themselves doctors. "Well I guess I should thank you then yes?" She asked, rubbing the back of her bun.

"You're welcome, miss. Or missus." He had a strange form of dialect it was uneducated yet educated all at once.

"Miss, Miss Victoria to you." Her dialect was more on the scottish side, making her even more peculiar. She couldn't like this man, he was a stranger and he would probably die at any moment from this feeble illness. She still eyed the thing that they all suspected would save them from dying.

"Ah, are you interested in the dead Miss Victoria?" He asked, looking at her with a sick grin. "Because you could easily pass as a man if you keep your hair up like that and wear a corset.

She was about to lash at him for saying that she could pass as a man, but this was one step closer to what she could do for the time she had here. When would the TARDIS return to her?


	5. Chapter 4: The One with the Floppy Hair

A week had past, yes another week. It was so fast to her that she couldn't even take a she was the feared one, behind the beaked concealer. This job was a sad one, but at least she didn't have to speak much or even really do much. It was her final day before her one day break. She rounded the corner and stepped right into a red telephone booth. A red telephone booth in this time period?

"THE TARDIS!" She exclaimed into her mind, grinning ear to ear. She opened the door and walked in, the interior had become so much more lively. It was gothic, candles sat nearly everywhere a book case sat near the console, housing a few more candles. She looked around, the burn victim of the end of gallifrey finally had a TARDIS. Her blue hues looked out behind the glass peins.

"You're beautiful..." She spoke, muffled by the black leather. She grabbed the handle, cold to the touch ready to be used. She pulled it, then hit several buttons, rang a doorbell and to finish it off pulled the final lever. The entire inside hummed with life, moving as it ran into the timestream and stabilized. Victoria reflected on her horrid expirence, so she decided to go forward in time to see London's fate.

Flipping a switch, pulling a lever and then pushing in and out over and over on a strange shapped lever gave her the time she wanted, she pulled the large lever again. The two raced towards modern london. A thud signalled the landing.

Victoria slid out of the door and into the outside. She landed near the river Thames, a large faris wheel turned across the river. A breeze hit her as it began to rain, it pelted her hat, then shoulders. She shifted the wand like cane around in her belt. People walking by with umbrella's watched her with wandering eyes. Who was she? "Darn coustumer..." One said, cursing under his breath after.

A few teenagers past with horrified looks on ther faces. "The Plague!" One joked, making squiggly hand motions and creating an "Oooooh!" Sound.

She had been called the plague more than her given name...this would be what she would go by from now on. The Plague. She hated time lord renegades until now, realizing she was more one of them than a proper time lady.

It looked as if London thrived now, no more plague, no more headstones or mass graves. She shut her eyes to take it all in. The sound of something inhuman rolled by. ROLLED BY?! She opened her eyes to see a Dalek rolling through London without a care in the world. A goofy looking man with floppy hair ran by, a sonic device in his hand. "AMY!" He called, urging his possible girlfriend along with him. "GET BACK HERE YOU UGLY WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRAS-" He paused, looking back at the strangely dressed individual.

The Dalek turned around, he seemed a bit dim witted. Was this one of the crazy ones she had heard of? It began to yell "EGGS-EGGGGSSSSS-" It sputtered about, falling on it's side.

"Hah! Sad really, I thought you could do better than that." He giggled chidishly, fixing his bow tie with such force. The one called Amy, or so she suspected walked behind him. She wore a leather jacket, mini skirt and cow boy boots and oh boy that hair was ginger. It was as if it were on fire.

She in observation, only wanting to intervine if nessicary. The girl called Amy shook her head and laughed at the helpless Dalek. "Oh booy! Doctor, he's just the smartest one of the bunch, isn't he?"

The doctor chuckled now, shaking his head. "Blimey, this one needs to be put back into the asylum, seems he's slipped a cog in his system."

Amy looked in her direction, eyes filled with new concern. "Erm, doctor? She said..."

The doctor shook his head putting a finger up. "Now now, Pond. Can't you see I'm busy?"

Amy scowled now, rolling her eyes. "Doctor! This really isn't a good time to ignore me!" She growled a long and Scottish growl.

The Doctor looked and saw the Plague. "Oh don't look at that! That's not important, it's just a plague doctor Amy. That's perfectly- A plague doctor?" He spun on his foot to look at the stranger. "A plague doctor in 21st century London?"


	6. Chapter 5: The Doctor and Captain Obviou

The Plague turned about to look him straight in the eyes. Something about him made her feel afraid. She felt something more than one heart beating in his chest.

The Doctor interrupted her thoughts by speaking again. "Now Amy, this is probably an alien. A very technically advanced alien. One that could cause us-"

Amy sighed, putting a finger up in protest. "Doctor, if its so dangerous then WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TALKING?" She walked backward, wide eyed.

"I'm standing right here." She chuckled lightly, shaking her head. "I'm not deaf, you know."

The Doctor's brow raised, his eyes confused pools of green. "Well that's obvious." He turned around and smiled to Amy. "Captain Obvious."

She felt a familiar energy come from him, something...from her own planet. But she was most definately the last. The Doctor walked up to her and began to look her over, rudely scanning her with his sonic screwdriver. He had such a swagger in his walk.

The Doctor looked at her and shook his head. "No! No!" He looked it over again. "It's lying to me, you can't be...no you aren't It's all a lie."

"It can be whatever you want it to be. But lying to yourself if the first step to failure." She walked closer to the two of them, her hearts nearly beating out of her chest. The Plague felt as if her hearts would explode at any moment.

The Doctor moved his already non-tight bow tie, trying to get it so it didn't choke him. But in reality it was his fear that choked him. "Your from Galifrey aren't you." It had been too long since anyone had contacted him. The last time he was contacted he was led astray. But this time, this time was so much more different. A person of his race standing directly in front of him in the flesh. She was like a ghost to him, due to his horrible past. "But I killed all of you." He whispered as quietly as possible. Then he took the chance to realize something important. Maybe she was one of the good ones.

Victoria stared at a single speck in the ground as if it were the most important speck in the entire universe. Sheer interest filled her hearts. Her eyes looked upward into his. "I thought I was the last one, until I came across you."

The world became silent, so silent in that you could hear the five heart beats in the area. Amy, The Doctor's and of course her's.

Amy stood tapping her foot for the longest time. She stopped as it all came into light. "So she's one of you? But-"

The Doctor held up a finger attempting to shush her. "I'm trying to think, Pond. Shhh! I mean SHH!"


End file.
